


Surprise Me

by Pridia



Series: Bad Days [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Presents, Complicated Relationships, Denial of Feelings, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s03e10 Blink, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Relationships, Interspecies Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-11 04:27:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8953645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pridia/pseuds/Pridia
Summary: Martha is having a rough time, The Doctor knows this and plans to surprise her on Christmas.(Set during Blink, prequel to From Bad To Worse as it explains the story of something mentioned within the story, it can be read as a standalone though.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> MERRY CHRISTMAS, okay it's a little early but I'm quite certain that I won't upload anything else before Christmas so I just said it. Here's a Chrismas fic about Martha and The Doctor's time in 1968/1969, during Blink. This story is debatable AU as it is set in 1968, but it isn't canon that they hadn't been there for a very long time. Anyway, this fic is also slightly Martha/Ten shipping but in the early days of their relationship, well not exactly, as if you can consider this story canon-compliant and that it just never works out between them, unless you read the series this story is connected to where it all will work out for them, eventually.... I hope...... You don't have to read the whole series as this is a standalone story, this story will only be referred to in future parts.  
> By the way, I am not entirely sure about the title so if you have a better idea, please let me know.  
> Another thing, Martha and The Doctor don't exactly follow the traditional Christmas rules (I think), this is because I never really celebrated Chrismas, as where I'm from Christmas isn't the most important holiday, so we get all the presents on a different day. sure we had/have a Christmas tree and got a few small presents anyway and dinner but not actually Christmas like I'm willing to bet most of you celebrate...  
> Anyway, I hope that you'll enjoy it and any feedback is welcomed. English isn't my first language, so corrections are really appreciated ;)
> 
> You can read this story on [Fanfiction.net ](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12284648/1/Surprise-Christmas) as well.

_Slam!_

The Doctor's eyes widened and he quickly hid his notes in his pockets, grabbed the Timey-Wimey detector he was working on and quickly started to work on it again, or at least started to pretend that he was. And no second too late as Martha came bouldering into their small sitting room, he looked up at her and noticed that she looked very very angry, he put the Timey-Wimey detector away again and mentally prepared himself for the outburst of an angry Martha Jones, although that was worthless, one does not simply prepare oneself for an angry Martha Jones. That was one of the reasons The Doctor did his best to avoid getting her angry, but after what happened in 1913 and now that they were stuck in 1969, he was failing that one hard.

He knew that she wasn't exactly angry at him but was just stressed out by the situation, something he wouldn't blame her for, and she just took it all out on him. Her job in the shop was really tough on her, people weren't nice to her because of her skin colour and, though she claimed otherwise, he knew that it hurt her deeply, she had also looked after him everytime he had gotten sick, which had happened a couple of times after they got here, his immune system was really weak after having used the chameleon arch and he kept getting infected by all kind of viruses, which was the opposite of normal for Time Lords as they usually barely got sick and now he got sick more often than an average human, he cursed the Chameleon Arch under his breath once again, it was getting better now and less frequent as his body was recovering, but he knew that it didn't help Martha's stress levels when he was sick and keeping her awake the whole night by being sick and now with Christmas coming up her stress was becoming even worse, as it was busier than usual in the shop. He tried his best to ease the situation for her, he did all the housework and shopping for her while she was at the shop, at least, when he wasn't sick that was. But that was nothing compared to what she did, he felt guilty and therefore gladly took her angry outburst caused by the stress she had because of him. From experience, he knew that those outbursts were fierce but short.

"This is your fault! You got us stuck here!" she almost shouted.

She leant over him and hit him in the chest, rather hard. "If you'd run those damned scans we wouldn't be here and... and …." He saw the tears forming in her eyes. "It's all your fault." She said her voice broken now. He sighed internally knowing where this was going and hating it, those outbursts happened almost every week and she often retreated to the bathroom right after she had one of them, he knew that she had been crying to herself all those times, his ears were sensitive enough for him to hear her sobs, and he suspected that she thought that he would think her weak if she wept over the current situation, a thought he actually thought completely rubbish, he could see how hurt she was after 1913 and she barely had had time to heal from what before getting thrown into the next terrible situation namely 1968, where she had to work in a shop and deal with racism in the process. He was actually wondering how she could still keep herself together after all this, he had broken her, he knew it and yet she was still standing, pretending not to be as broken as he knew she was.

It was his fault and he didn't know how to make up for it. What surprised him, what made this outburst different from the others, was that this time around was that he saw the tears falling, this worried him even more about her well-being, something he was already fairly worried about, as she usually managed to keep them back until she was alone in the bathroom. She hastily tried to retreat to said bathroom, he suspected, but he gently grabbed her wrist stopping her and gently guided her towards him, taking his chance to stop her from hiding her pain from him, he pulled her into an embrace and rubbed soothing circles on her back as she sobbed into his shoulder, letting out all the stress and sorrow she had been hiding the whole time.

"It's okay, just let it out." He whispered to her, it hurt him to see her like this. She kept weeping and he kept rubbing her back and whispering comforting words to her.

Eventually she calmed down and he realised that she had soaked his t-shirt, he wasn't wearing his suit very often anymore, because it was a bit difficult to get cleaned, so he started wearing jeans and t-shirts in the flat, but he would always change to his suit when he went out, he wouldn't admit it out loud but he felt a bit bare and actually scared when he was wearing something else than his suit in the company of others, it surprised him that he didn't feel that way with Martha, but he had even been uncomfortable around Rose if he hadn't worn his suit or even with his previous body the leather jacket. He had always felt uncomfortable if he couldn't wear his clothing of choice but always tried, he thought successfully, to hide it.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bother you." She looked down at his chest, clearly ashamed of having soaked his t-shirt, having cried on his shoulder or both, he didn't know which option it was nor did he care he just wanted to comfort her. She tried to move away again, but he gently caressed her cheek, stopping her.

"Hey, Martha look at me." He gently nudged her face upwards so she looked him in the eyes.

"Why do you think that you bother me?" He asked her but didn't give her the chance to answer. "It's earlier the other way around. You're the one who has been working her ass off for the past year and yes I don't just mean being stuck in 1968, soon to be 1969, mind you, but also our time at Farringham." There it was, they had never talked about it afterwards. The subject had become a bit of a taboo between the two of them, but he felt like he _had_ to bring it up now. He took a deep breath. "I know that we don't talk about it, but I just wanted to say thank you and that I'm sorry for that and this," He waved the arm not caressing her cheek around indicating the flat. "and also that I really don't know how you can keep it up at all, I don't know what I would've done without you." He told her sincerely. This caused her to break down in tears again and she sobbed into his shoulder again.

* * *

 It took her less time to recover and this time she actually stayed snuggled into him, when she spoke again.

"It's almost Christmas."

"I know." he said, not really sure what else to say.

"It's just," She shifted a bit in his arms. "I've always loved Christmas, the last few years, it was the only day of the year that my parents were civil to each other, they tried it for the sake of not ruining the Christmas spirit. They would probably still do it, next Christmas or the Christmas 40 years from now." She looked up at him, "Don't you ever get confused?"

"By dates?" She nodded. "Stopped bothering about them, well, the TARDIS keeps track of it for me, if you ever want to know something in combination to the date, ask the TARDIS. She usually reminds me when the important dates are coming up, like your birthdays and indeed things like Christmas. She did, however, stop with reminding me of my own birthday, never did something with it."

"You have a birthday?"

"Who doesn't? I haven't got the foggiest as of which date anymore, nor do I know how old I actually am, I am guessing somewhere along the lines of 903. The TARDIS would know, but I never bother to look it up. But I do remember that you were telling me something." He pointed out.

She nodded and started speaking again, looking down at his chest.

"It's just that it's almost Christmas and..." she paused a moment and when she spoke again her voice was very low and he probably would have had to pay a lot of effort to hear her if he had human hearing, but he hadn't so he could still hear her perfectly fine. "it's for the first time without my family, not to mention we can't exactly celebrate it with our budget."

"I'm sorry." There was nothing else he could say, well, there was, since he was actually working on having a surprise Christmas for Martha. He had gone to the horse track with some of the money she had earned and had used his Time Lord senses to predict which horse won and got himself an adequate budget for a small Christmas tree with decorations, a nice dinner and a few presents. He knew that Martha didn't like the idea of cheating and would probably give him a talking to once he told her what he had done, but he didn't care. It was Christmas, she had told him before that she loved Christmas, so he wanted to give her something for Christmas, no matter the means.

He sighed internally and decided to keep it a surprise, that would make it even better. It was just a month before it would be Christmas and he hoped that he would get her to smile, something she had not been doing often enough in the last few months, which was really a shame, he thought, she had a beautiful smile.

After a while he said. "Do you want some dinner?"

She nodded.

"Do you want me to make it?"

She nodded again.

"Can I make it?"

"I already said yes." She looked up at him questionably.

"Yeah, you did, but ehhm you see, it's a bit difficult to go and make dinner like this."

"What?" She looked at him not comprehending. He sighed, slightly amused.

"You're really tired aren't you?" She blinked at him a couple of times, then he decided that she wasn't getting it and just plainly told her.

"I can't get up."

She frowned. "Why aren't you able to get up?"

He chuckled. "I really think that you should be heading to bed miss Jones."

"Why?" He started poking her and only then she realised what he meant.

"Owwww." She exclaimed in realisation and quickly moved off of him. "Sorry, maybe I really should head to bed." She agreed with his previous claim when her stomach growled.

He chuckled again and suggested. "After dinner?"

"Definitely." She agreed and he stood up to make it.

* * *

The Doctor looked at his shopping list for Martha's surprise Christmas and smiled, he only needed a top for the tree. He was, unlike him, done early. There were still three weeks left until it was Christmas and he had (almost) everything stored in Mr Rowland's flat. Mr Rowland was their neighbour, he was in his sixties and had a dog. While he was still capable of doing most things on his own, The Doctor had often offered him help, not that he accepted much help. He did ask The Doctor to do his shopping, at least only if he was heading towards the shops himself anyway, Mr Rowland didn't want to bother him. He did talk to Mr Rowland during the times he helped out in the house, every week or so, and he had learned that Mr Rowland had lost his wife a few years ago. The Doctor had told Mr Rowland about his plans for Christmas and Mr Rowland had allowed him to hide the stuff in his apartment, as long as The Doctor would decorate Mr Rowland's Christmas tree as well, albeit a bit earlier than he was planning on putting up their tree. So he actually had already set up Mr Rowland's tree, by now. Mr Rowland had told The Doctor that usually the family would do that when they come over during Christmas, but that he always wished for it to be there earlier and longer. The Doctor was glad that Mr Rowland that would be spending the holidays with his family and was really grateful that Mr Rowland was helping him with his surprise for Martha.

The Doctor went into a shop and carefully chose a beautiful star as top, he hadn't bought any Christmas angels as they were trapped here because of angels, it wouldn't be a clever thing to remind her of that and if he was honest with himself he wasn't feeling entirely comfortable with the idea himself.

There was only one more thing that he needed to arrange and that was actually the hardest thing, in his opinion at least, he needed to make sure that Martha would work on the day before Christmas so he could set up the tree and presents. Therefore he had to ask Martha's boss, Scott, if he could shedule her in for that day. Scott was a nice guy and The Doctor didn't doubt that Scott would help him with surprising Martha, the only problem was asking him to do so without Martha learning about it.

He headed to the shop, which was about to close so he could walk home with Martha, he opened the door and walked in and was greeted by Martha's co-worker, he knew that Martha had become friends with her and he could go along with her quite well.

"Hey, John."

"Hey, Sidney." He turned to her as she was working on restocking a shelf. "How's the day going?"

"Busy, it's the weeks before Christmas, they are always the worst." He nodded at that.

"Anyway, Martha told me earlier that the two of you couldn't celebrate Christmas and I have been thinking, the two of you could come over and celebrate it with me and Edward." He stiffened, this could ruin his plans as Martha would certainly want this.

"You already asked Martha?" He asked her.

"No, not yet, I just thought of it. I will have to ask Edward if that's alright." The Doctor let out a sigh of relief and quickly looked if he could see Martha.

"you don't have to bother." he answered, making sure to keep his voice a bit low

"You don't want that?"

"Ehhm, no, I ehhmmm it's lovely and thank you but, eehmm" He added in a whisper. "I've been planning something."

"Ooohh. And what might that be?" She asked a bit louder than he would've liked.

"Shhh, she's here, right? what if she hears?"

"Right, yeah, sorry, but can I know?" She lowered her voice.

"Nothing fancy, just a normal Christmas, with a tree, presents, dinner, you name it."

"How can you afford that?"

"Martha will probably kill me if I tell her, but ehmm I've always been lucky at the horse tracks."

"You won?"

"Yup."

"But why did you do it."

"I figured that the risk would be worth it for the sake of Christmas, to make her smile."

Sydney nodded at him.

"She's lucky to have a husband like you." He smiled at her, they had to pretend that they were married, no one would give a couple like them accommodation if not married.

"I'm lucky to have her, anyway, do you know where she is?"

"Yeah, she's in the back taking inventory with Scott, I think that it would be better if you wait here, she needs to concentrate."

He nodded. "Makes sense." He frowned a bit, coming up with a solution to his problem. "Hey, I've been trying to talk to Scott privately for a while now, without Martha knowing. But ehmm."

"Not having luck?" She guessed.

He shook his head.

"Any chance that you could distract Martha so I can have a conversation with him?"

"What do you want to ask him?"

"Whether he can make sure that Martha works on the day before Christmas so that she isn't home while I set everything up in the flat."

"Yeah, you would have to ask him that, sure! I'll distract her for you. Just because Martha needs that surprise."

"Not because you like me?" He looked at her with puppy dog eyes. She chuckled.

"That too."

At that moment Martha and Scott walked into the room.

"Hey, John!" Martha ran over him and gave him a quick hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just shopping and was nearby so, I figured that I would drop by." He gave her a quick peck on the lips, which was something that they had agreed on doing for the show. He didn't mind, he was actually the one who started it. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but he kinda liked it.

"I'm free, we can walk home together." He nodded.

"Ehhm Martha, I was wondering if you could help me out with some of the orders in the back, I am having some trouble." Sydney cut in.

"I can wait." The Doctor said, suspecting that this was Sydney's distraction.

"Okay, sure, I'll be right back." She told him and walked towards the back, Sydney followed her, giving him a wink in the process.

"Right, Sydney having problems with the orders, she has been doing the same orders for more than a year and now she's having problems? Nope, not buying it." Scott said.

"She doesn't have problems, she just let Martha out of the room to do me a favour."

"Why is that?" Scott turned to him.

"Because I want to ask you to help me with a surprise, not exactly easy to do if she's in the room you know."

"I suppose not, what do you want me to do?"

"Can you shedule her in for the day before Christmas?"

"Yes, but why?"

"So, I have enough time to decorate the flat for Christmas eve?" He looked pleadingly.

Scott nodded.

"I was actually planning on giving her free that whole week, she's been working so hard, but I suppose that I can do it the day afterwards."

"Thank you."

"I hope that she's going to like whatever it is that you planned, John." The Doctor sighed.

"Me too, Scott, me too."

* * *

The day had arrived, it was December 24th, The Doctor opened the door of their flat and dragged the tree in, the tree he had stashed in Mr Rowland's flat for the past 3 weeks. Martha had left for work ten minutes ago and he had started to work on decorating their flat, he wanted to start with the tree as it was the most important part and he thought that anyone would agree with him.

It took him about an hour to finish decorating the tree, then he went to place some Christmas candles and hung up twigs with Christmas baubles. Then he went and put the presents under the tree.

When he was satisfied with his handy-work, he looked at the clock and saw that Martha would be home in about two hours, more than enough time for him to make dinner, which admittedly wasn't Christmas-y, it was just some spaghetti with meatballs but he knew that it was her favourite and that she hadn't had it in months so it would certainly do.

He heard the door of the flat open and, for a change, _not_ slam, which meant that she was in a good mood already and he knew that it wasn't because she had seen his surprise already as she wouldn't be able to see it from the front door. He stood in the doorway of the kitchen, so he would be able to see her reaction. She walked in and started talking.

"You'll never believe what happ... " She stopped short when she saw the decorations. "end..." she turned to him. "What?"

"Merry Christmas." He smiled at her.

She turned around to inspect the decorations. "You did this?"

"Who else?" He carefully reminded himself that he needed to get back to the spaghetti in 2 minutes and 23 seconds.

"Good point." She turned back to him and jumped into his arms, causing him to stumble backwards a bit. "Oh thank you, so much!"

"No problem." That was when she noticed the smell of food being cooked.

"What are you cooking?"

"Spaghetti with meatballs." He looked at her and saw a huge smile forming on her face, causing him to smile back

_Mission accomplished._

"Oh that's brilliant, but why?"

"Why not? After everything I figured that you needed it." he turned towards the kitchen, "I should get back to dinner, it's almost ready."

"Ooohhh and then what?" She asked.

"I thought that you'd like to open your presents, or do you want to leave them there for however long we'll stay here, that is an option if you like. But then aga..." He stopped talking as she took a step forward and covered his mouth, to stop him from rambling.

"You got me presents?" She asked him, he pulled her hand away and answered her.

"Course I did, can't have a Christmas without presents, can we?"

"I suppose."

"But I really should get back to dinner now, or we will have burnt spaghetti." He turned and walked back towards the kitchen.

"Ehhhm, no thanks, I like my spaghetti not burned." She followed him into the kitchen

"I figured."

* * *

They were enjoying their (not burnt) dinner when The Doctor asked.

"So what had you all enthusiastic when you came home?" Martha frowned a bit then her expression changed to one of realisation.

"Ow yeah, you..." She pointed at him. "are not the only one who came up with a Christmas surprise."

"Oh, who else?" He asked.

"Scott." she stated.

"Scott," He repeated "now that's something I'm not surprised about. What did he do?"

"Well, for starters he gave me the rest of the week and the week afterwards off so I don't have to show up until January 6th. And I'll be paid for those days also he gave me a raise of 4 cents an hour."

"Ooooh, that's nice, that's nice, really that's …. thanks, Scott! No really, thanks, Scott, he helped me a bit with this. And Mr Rowland, he helped a bit too. He allowed me to store this in his flat."

"And what did Scott do to help."

"He made sure that you'd work today so that I had time to set everything up."

She nodded and then asked the question he had (foolishly) hoped that she wouldn't ask.

"How did you afford this? I mean... you know."

"Yeah, that was a bit of an issue," He awkwardly scratched his neck "I borrowed a bit of our money and ehhm went to the... horse tracks?" he braced himself for the expected lecture, which never came, well not as bad as he had expected at least.

"You won the money, by betting, you risked losing money?"

"Not exactly, as a Time-Lord I can sort of see which horse will win, so no risking."

"That's cheating." she stated.

"I know, that's why I didn't suggest it as a way to get money, but I figured that it would be fine for the sake of Christmas, just this once."

"I suppose." She grinned at him. "But don't even think about making a habit out of that." she added firmly.

"Yes ma'am"

She nodded pleased as she finished her dinner.

"Do you want to open your presents?" The Doctor asked her.

"Of course I do." She smiled at him and then frowned. "I don't have anything for you."

"No need, you've done enough for me, it figured that it was my turn. It's nothing compared to what you've done." He offered her a small smile.

"You're sure?"

"Definitely."

"Okay, " She smiled at him."I'm really quite curious what those presents are."

"I thought you were." He answered smugly.

She stuck her tongue out to him, as they stood up and walked to the living room together.

* * *

It turned out that The Doctor had gotten her four things, a new radio, which was actually for the both of them, but still _her_ present as he had pulled the original apart for the Timey-Wimey detector, a copy of "the white album" by the Beatles, a new stethoscope as he had broken hers in the same fashion as the original radio. And last but not least he had gotten her a bracelet, a silver bracelet, nonetheless, with small twisted parts, it was beautiful, it did make her wonder just how much money he had won. But she didn't ask him.

"It's beautiful." she told him after she got settled in his arms.

"Do you like it?" he asked.

"Course I do, why wouldn't I?" She smiled up at him and saw that he genuinely was wondering that, he really wanted to know whether he had gotten the right things, he looked away.

"But really though," She turned his head back to her, "Thank you, for this, but not just this also the travelling," He opened his mouth to argue but she continued before he got the chance, "Sure there has been a lot of bad things going on, but you've shown me so many things to compete for that, really, I wouldn't have missed it for the world." She told him truthfully then nuzzled in his shoulder and got comfortable.

He kept silent for a while and she found herself falling asleep

"You're welcome, Martha Jones." She heard him whisper just before sleep pulled her into darkness.


End file.
